Electrifying

The Whirlpool set that came with the house:

Pretty nice right?  Well they are from 1989, and the dryer didn't work that great.  Talla had a set in her basement, so I went ahead on sold these on craigslist (for $175!  Booyah!)

After we got the new washer and dryer lugged into the house, I realized that there was one small problem....

Crap.... 

Back at Home Depot, they had no Dryer cords that would fit in this outlet.  I did manage to find what I was looking for, but it was a cord for a range.  The staff at HD "strongly" recommended that I not try to put the range cord on the back of the dryer.  Since they couldn't explain to me WHY this was a bad idea, I went ahead and bought the cord.

Then I did one of the dumbest things that I had done in a while.... 

In my defense, I didn't want to go through the work of installing the new cord just to find out that the plug didn't fit again.

I plugged in the new cord to test it (not attached to anything on the other end).  As soon as it went in, 220 volts sparked violently at my feet.  Woops!... didn't think that one through.  In the pictures below, you will see some charred areas on the copper from the "test".

February Flowers

The previous owners of this house were active gardeners.  I moved in to a house with the yard neatly raked and the garden freshly weeded.  Spring has revealed the early stages of my new garden with pereniells blossoming all across the property.

I took these pictures on an unusually warm February day.

Daffodils in the back yard:

 Tulip?  I wish there was an app that could help me identify plants.

This is in the back yard garden

I think these are pansies.

 ....And then the next day.   In just five minutes, there was a substantial accumulation of snow.  The Vietnamese kids across the street made a snow man.

Nice Rack!

A pot rack is one of the most important things a kitchen can have.  Pots are otherwise stacked in a lower cabinet.  To get a pot you have to bend over, pull out a few pots, get the one you need, and then put the other pots back.  Horribly inefficient...

Our new pot rack serves a triple purpose as storage, a drying rack, and showcase for quality cookware.

Before:

During:

Glorious.  Isn't it?:

Finishing the bathroom

February 1-10th, 2013:  There are few things less enjoyable than painting a bathroom.  At first, I thought it would be easier - less walls, but then I realized there are fixtures, toilets, mirrors and stuff that you have to get around.  Check out our earlier post: http://sharingsheridan.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-wallpaper-party-goes-disco.html.  When Bailey was in town, she offered to sand while Talla and I went to the store.  We came back about an hour and a half later to see her still sanding.   I painted two coats of mold preventing (expensive) primer.  then I finished the job with two coats of premium egg shell textured paint.

After it was all finished, we had to remove the toilet to get that portion de-allpapered and painted.  I did all of the plumbing work myself, but my dad helped to provide some valuable guidance.  When I asked him if he had ever replaced a johnny seal before, or if he had ever moved a toilet, he replied: "No... but I have seen the plumber do it a few times."  I shut off the water to the house, mopped up the toilet water with some of Talla's new white Turkish bath towels (very absorbant!), and lifted it to the shower.  Then I scraped the 30 year old wax ring from the toilet base so that we could start painting.

What is wrong with this picture?:

After the toilet was removed:

The new Sheridan resident

Last night Alex turned over in bed and jumped. He thought there was a person or a ghost in the house. I turned to see why he jumped and did the same. But we were safe, it was just the head.

Last weekend we went furniture hunting at the Sleepy Poet. Alex walked out with a massive cedar hope chest and I walked out with a head. I've been intrigued with Phrenology since watching My Girl back in 5th grade (I love that movie). Now I can be like Vada and analyze people's personalities. Who wants to visit?

According to my new Phrenology head the part of my brain relating to selfish propensities is over utilized and the part relating to moral and religious sentiments is under utilized. My vitativeness is over utilized as well. Huh.

I'm no Phrenology expert but I've also determined that Alex over utilizes every part of his brain, especially the alimentiveness part.

If I had purchased one of these back in high school I might have scored higher on the verbal section of the SAT...